RATS is as RATS does...
Posted on 03/07/2012 5:37:02 PM PST by Kaslin
Politics: Reports from a variety of media reveal California state employees are spiking their pensions to stratospheric levels, leaving nothing for their brother employees. Sorry, can't blame Wall Street for this one.
In a laudable instance of the mainstream media doing its job, the Los Angeles Times, the Sacramento Bee, Bloomberg News and City Journal have all exposed "pension spiking" by California public employees. Basically, they manipulate rigid unionized pay and promotion systems to raise their pensions well above what they earned during their working years.
The Los Angeles Times on Saturday pieced together tough-to-get data from Kern and Ventura counties and found a fiscal horror story: In Kern, 77% of public employees with pensions greater than $100,000 actually get more than they did during their working lives.
In Ventura, the figure is 84%. Kern has a $761 million pension shortfall, in part due to the practice.
Both the practice and the lack of transparency are signs of a rotten system. Bigger counties like San Diego and Los Angeles also permit pension spiking.
But L.A. asked the Times to fork over $63,000 for "research" or they won't reveal a thing. Seems it doesn't bother these bureaucrats to pay out the spiked cash, but knowing how much it is is too much of a bother.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
RATS is as RATS does...
Pension spiking is endemic in most cities, counties and states, but the information has been closely held and wasn’t of a lot of interest until the systems turn up broke due to the increases in salaries and a financial downturn.
The people managing the system are the ones who benefit most..so why would they tell us what they are doing?
This is why I am in favor of drastic solutions..we must force public employees into a more responsible pay and benefit program..even if it means strikes and bankruptcies.
Or civil unrest. Unionized police and firemen today face risks that are a far cry less than the historic values that once justified their "hazard pay."
If there's a retirement program that will pay me even a 50%fraction of my income in retirement, LET ME KNOW ABOUT IT.
I'd invest in a second.
Save for later
CBS Evening News reported 3/7/12-—San Jose, CA has three spanking new libraties and a mega-police station that are vacant and unused b/c of lack of funds——govt worker pensions are eating up the city budget.
Govt workers get 90% of their salaries as pensions when they retire at the age of 50 or so-—probably into a 2nd low-show six-figure govt job.
Vallejo, the city that went bankrupt closed a new fire station and for awhile had the community of Benicia on call for fires and police action.
Then, things seemed to turn around, the fire station was reopened, cops and firemen were hired, and we started hearing about the Vallejo miracle.
Most of us know that the age of miracles died about 2000 years ago.
So I wondered how new Vallejo liberals running the same ponzi games with their union thug voters had turned Vallejo around.
Apparently, the new regime got promises from the thugs in DC and got federal grants to pay their bills. Eventually the evil bond holders/creditors will be knocking at the doors asking for money that will not be there when those grants run out.
Vallejo was in the Obama pants re votes in the last election, and they will be even more so in the upcoming election.
So there was no Vallejo Miracle just more of the same con game.
Paraphrasing Saint Augustine “Without a system of justice – what else is govt but a marauding band of thieves.”
Most republicans won’t touch police and fire...even Walker exempted them in WI.
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